Discipline change (lit & music)

[Mat2938]

Hi all,

In principle, my question is fairly simple, but it requires a bunch of explanation. Hopefully your eyes don't glaze over.

I did my undergrad at a top Ivy League U (rhymes with 'harbored'), in musicology. Over the last couple of years I've realized, however, that I want to do work at the intersection of lit and music (with a generous helping of theory), rather than straight musicology (can't stand the politics and arguments endemic to the discipline, as well as the prospect of having to teach music history when I come out of a doctoral program). By the time I realized this as an undergraduate, however, it was too late to change majors/double major. I did, however, take a bunch of high level electives in various literary fields as an undergrad, to the extent that I often took more courses than I was required to (or should have, reasonably speaking). Generally, I enjoyed these courses far more than the music courses I was doing. I did well, if not often better in them than the music courses I was taking. I'm currently doing a one year strictly research masters course in the UK with a great advisor in word and music studies (as some people call it). I've also done a masters degree in music composition at a music conservatoire, but this is not something I want to do as a career and sort of sticks out as a sore thumb on my CV, at least academia careers-wise. I have what I think are quite good references from top, top people in their fields (music, Af-Am studies, Comp Lit, etc.). I won the top essay prize at my undergrad U, and I have a couple of book chapters that are currently in preparation for publication. I'm good at writing statements of purpose and these sorts of things. In other words (and without sounding obnoxious...), I am motivated and fairly accomplished for someone my age.

Here's the rub: I want to apply to an English doctoral program. Given that my credentials are skewed somewhat more in the direction of music (though it is not that I have zero literary experience, by any means), I worry if I could get into a top program, even some of the more interdisciplinary ones or ones with faculty members who have an interest in word and music. Certainly I don't have the experience that the average Harvard-Yale-Princeton 1st year English student has of the canon (Beowulf, Chaucer, etc.). To an admissions committee, my strengths would lie elsewhere, but even given my credentials, I'm worried that's not enough. If I don't get into a top program in English, I wonder if it would be a more pragmatic decision to do musicology and try to pursue interdisciplinary alternatives from there. However, it's something I'm quite loath to do. SO: given that I've already done two masters degrees and really don't think it makes sense to do another (for financial, among other reasons), I wanted to know whether anyone else has any other suggestions for ways to shore up my literary credentials CV-wise. Obviously my writing sample would be geared towards this end, and on some level I will have to explain in my SoP the reasons for my semi-disciplinary about-face. But as it stands I'm a bit worried. Maybe I'm just being neurotic, in which case you can tell me this too! Thanks in advance for whatever help you can give.

[crimsonsneakers]

I'd probably work on reading the canon. If you apply to English Lit programs they will likely want the GRE Lit and a high score there could make up for the deficiencies you'll have in coursework.

It seems like you have a fairly strong narrative as a scholar, provided you can successfully address the music composition master's. I think the challenge will be to portray yourself as devoted primarily to literary scholarship, and make your other interests secondary. Alternatively, apply to interdisciplinary programs where you wouldn't be expected to do so. What would your field in English be?

[Mat2938]

Wow, thanks for the lightning quick reply! My field would be late 20c American, but the problem is this: generally when I sit down and start a research project, I start with a cluster of music, novels, theory, whatever centered around an idea, concept, something. I don't think of myself as fitting into a particular subfield based on a specific 3 or 4 decades, or nationality--"postcolonial", "romantics", whatever. I could be doing work on John Cage, but if it requires me to go read Kant and use that in a meaningful manner, fine. So limiting myself to having to only work on American postwar novels just feels counterintuitive to me. This is maybe the main reason why I'm not sure if English is the way to go. Departments are much more flexible these days, but even so, I might go against the grain so much that it's not a good idea. My initial inclination was actually that I'd be better suited for a Comp Lit department (which is what I initially wanted to major in my first year as an UG), but I hear so many bad things about it as a field jobs-wise that it has completely scared me away, even though I loved the courses I took in the department as an UG. On the other hand, people have told me if you come out of a CL department with a concrete, marketable skill (being able to/wanting to teach beginner French) then you might be ok. CL feels more intuitive to me--regardless of whether it is more of a comparative literature department in the sense of comparing literatures, or whether in the more contemporary sense of theory/interdisciplinary/intermedia/etc. And I don't particularly care to be hemmed in having to only work on one national literature, either. If I'm working on a particular concept that is important to modernism, and if that requires me to go read something in French, whatever. But at the same time my language abilities have never been my strongest suit (so being able to convince an admissions panel that I'd be able to juggle 4 languages in my dissertation might be tricky), so any way you slice it it seems I have an uphill battle to face. Either way, brushing up on the canon seems a good way to go, but if somebody was to tell me that the only way to get into a top program (English, CL, or otherwise, it doesn't matter) was by consolidating my skills in another one-year masters' course, I'd seriously consider it, even though I've been jumping from place to place for a while now that I'd like to be able to finally settle down somewhere semi-permanently for 5+ years.

[noxrosa]

I know there are varying opinions on this, but to me it seems your diverse background is a strength, not a weakness! It sounds like you've demonstrated all along (through coursework, essay contests, your second Masters) that literature is something you're excited about, and that, in combination with your SOP and writing sample AdComms would have a hard time doubting you're serious about wanting to pursue this track.

[Mat2938]

Well, that's exactly it: for every person that says diversity of interests is a good thing, you get somebody else saying it's not so much. Not at all to discount what you say, because I totally agree with it in spirit insofar as I have strong interdisciplinary inclinations, but I think there's probably a such thing as having too diverse interests (at least as far as your research is concerned). Hypothetically, you can be interested in Herodotus, Tolstoy, and manga (I've purposely chosen really disparate topics!), but as far as research and teaching is concerned, at the end of the day you have to whittle it down some, even if you have an incredible mind for comparison and synthesis. There's also a distinction to be made between people with diverse interests who absolutely know all their stuff in all those fields (I suppose these people would either not require sleep, or would have grown up reading the Norton Anthology since age 3!), versus people who are less solid in their preparation in at least one of the fields. As I said in my original post, my best preparation is in fact in musicology, but given the way people inside (and outside) the discipline think, it just is simply not well-suited for interdisciplinary work. So that's not an option. Many people who do word and music work seem to be english types with a very strong incidental interest in music, but who don't necessarily have music training. For whatever reason (well, I know the reason--the linguistic as opposed to visual or aural bias of the humanities), coming at it the other way around is much less common. Anyway, sorry to go on and on...

[crimsonsneakers]

I think diversity of interests is a good thing, and, certainly, most programs emphasize their interdisciplinarity. But what I hear from my adviser is that while it's fine to do interdisciplinary work once you are in, it's better to represent yourself as primarily one thing, that way they know whose desk to put your application on. So for the sake of applying, it's probably best to present yourself as a 20th C American person, with secondary interests in x, y, & z. That your interests will change while in grad school is expected, but you will probably always be expected to have a sense of where you fall within the traditional sub-disciplines.

[mayakeys]

If jazz is one of your areas of musical interest, you might look into Columbia's English program and its close ties with the center for Jazz Studies. The English department has a heavy emphasis both on Af-Am literature and on jazz. They would welcome someone who can bring musical expertise to bear on the many engagements between 20th century musical and literary movements, I think.

I am about to begin my first year in Comp Lit (at Berkeley), and I am also a professional musician so I'd be interested in talking more with you about possible intersections between the two fields, just inbox me.

[runonsentence]

Well, that's exactly it: for every person that says diversity of interests is a good thing, you get somebody else saying it's not so much. Not at all to discount what you say, because I totally agree with it in spirit insofar as I have strong interdisciplinary inclinations, but I think there's probably a such thing as having too diverse interests (at least as far as your research is concerned). Hypothetically, you can be interested in Herodotus, Tolstoy, and manga (I've purposely chosen really disparate topics!), but as far as research and teaching is concerned, at the end of the day you have to whittle it down some, even if you have an incredible mind for comparison and synthesis. There's also a distinction to be made between people with diverse interests who absolutely know all their stuff in all those fields (I suppose these people would either not require sleep, or would have grown up reading the Norton Anthology since age 3!), versus people who are less solid in their preparation in at least one of the fields. As I said in my original post, my best preparation is in fact in musicology, but given the way people inside (and outside) the discipline think, it just is simply not well-suited for interdisciplinary work. So that's not an option. Many people who do word and music work seem to be english types with a very strong incidental interest in music, but who don't necessarily have music training. For whatever reason (well, I know the reason--the linguistic as opposed to visual or aural bias of the humanities), coming at it the other way around is much less common. Anyway, sorry to go on and on...

It definitely will vary, by department/program, and by person. My double major and undergraduate research interests in intersections between literature and music scared a POI at one school I applied to, but then were listed as a strength (read: a reason I was accepted) at my current institution, where I'm completing my MA.

So the answer for you might be to do a lot of research on programs and (how I regret giving you this advice, because it's hell to do—trust me) tailoring your SOP for each program.